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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23953963">a golden day’s decline</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/teeterss/pseuds/teeterss'>teeterss</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Batman Beyond, Batman: The Animated Series, Justice League &amp; Justice League Unlimited (Cartoons)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Aging, Gen, Old Man Bruce</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 15:00:33</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,476</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23953963</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/teeterss/pseuds/teeterss</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>It was strange to know someone so well, so intimately to know even their sleep schedule, and yet barely know them at all.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>50</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>a golden day’s decline</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Exist around someone long enough and you’ll start to know them pretty well. It's inevitable. All the little things slowly build up into big things. Terry knows that although Bruce wants coffee more than he wants to walk without his cane, he drinks peppermint tea instead. He knows when Bruce is pleased or pissed at him just by the set of his shoulders. He knows when Bruce’s silences are because he’s thinking and when they’re because he doesn’t want to even look at another human being. He knows that Bruce is kind in ways he didn’t think mattered anymore.</p>
<p>It was strange to know someone so well, so intimately to know even their sleep schedule, and yet barely know them at all. Terry could list the things he knew about Bruce’s life before he met him and outside of batman on one hand.</p>
<p>“You should write it all down,” Terry said one day down in the cave, sat on the workbench with his legs swinging as Bruce repaired the fresh rips in the batsuit courtesy of the Jokerz. “Your memoirs, y’know. ‘My Life as Batman’. You could keep it anonymous and everything. It’d knock those books about washed up celebrities out the water. Sell like a billion copies!”</p>
<p>Bruce looked at him, eyebrow raised with a mixture of disdain and amusement.</p>
<p>“Or you could dictate and I write it down for you,” Terry continued, unperturbed. “Come on, you know it’d be a crime to let all those stories rattling around your head go with you.”</p>
<p>“You’re fishing, Terry.”</p>
<p>“No, I’m not!” Terry’s outrage sounded almost genuine. The eyebrow rose even higher. “OK fine, but you could at least tell me all your stories. I tell you literally everything about my life.”</p>
<p>“And I’m forever grateful,” Bruce said, derision colouring his voice so heavily he might as well have just laughed in Terry’s face. “I tell you enough,” he continued after a moment, his voice sobering. “Everything useful.”</p>
<p>“Yeah, I know how you knew where to find the Riddler’s bomb before he blew up town hall, but I don’t know the important stuff. The stuff that really mattered to you.”</p>
<p>“That is the important stuff.” Bruce’s voice was short and clipped. A clear warning to drop it, so Terry did, knowing a lost cause when he saw one.</p>
<p>The conversation was almost forgotten when days later Terry got a message in class, as brief and to the point as all messages from Bruce were:</p>
<p>
  <em>Meetings booked in Metropolis tomorrow. Already cleared you from school. Taking company jet.</em>
</p>
<p>Terry reread the message several times, despite there being no other way to interpret it. Under his desk he typed out:</p>
<p>
  <em>I’m coming too?</em>
</p>
<p>The <em>‘Don’t ask stupid questions’</em> reply he received wasn’t a surprise but Terry had just needed to be sure. Bruce had never taken him on any of the business trips he’d been on since being reinstated as CEO of Wayne Powers.</p>
<p>Bruce didn’t seem to be any more in the mood for explanations when Terry showed up the next morning, or during the plane ride.</p>
<p>“What are we doing here? I didn’t even know Wayne Powers did business with anyone in Metropolis,” Terry said when they’d been in the air for half an hour. “Thought you didn’t like stepping on Lex Corp's toes?” </p>
<p>“I don’t like exposing myself to unnecessary hassle from Luthor Jr, there’s a difference,” Bruce said, not looking up from the document he was reading.</p>
<p>“You realise you didn’t answer my question, right?” Bruce flashed him a brief glance that said all too clearly ‘did you really expect any different?’. Terry half shrugged, not really caring all that much about the answer, and went back to tossing back peanuts.</p>
<p>Metropolis itself was familiar in the way that all big cities were these days, but different enough from Gotham to make it seem bizarrely foreign. Driving through it in a Wayne Powers private car, the contrasts between the two cities was beginning to make Terry’s teeth ache. </p>
<p>“The streets are so clean, who do we have to strong arm on the Gotham council to get the same treatment?” Terry said, almost slipping into the gruff Batman tone with the tinge of jealousy he was feeling. “Is it just me or is the sun actually brighter here?”</p>
<p>“Change in climate can make a world of difference,” Bruce nodded, understanding in the way only he could.</p>
<p>They passed an honest to god green grass park where children were playing Frisbee while their parents watched. Gotham Central Park had been closed and turned into flats when Terry was a child after the number of bodies found in it in a year had entered triple digits. “Who even smiles anymore?” Terry quipped as they drove by it and Bruce chuckled.</p>
<p>Bruce’s ‘meetings’ actually only consisted of one, a new startup that was running out of the 16th floor of a tall office block. “Hardly one of your usual haunts, Bruce,” Terry said in the cramped waiting room, noting how the girl on reception had both a nose and tongue stud. “Don’t you usually only work with companies that can afford their own peninsula along with an office?”</p>
<p>“If RiftTech are all they promise, they could have found a way to provide a real solution to self-sustaining energy. Dupre, the owner, is something of a tech genius, but from what I can gather, abysmal at everything else.” </p>
<p>“And you’re here to offer a helping hand?” </p>
<p>“Sometimes it pays to invest in undiscovered talent, regardless of how questionable they look on paper.” There was a smile in Bruce’s voice but Terry still flushed.</p>
<p>It wasn’t the worst way to spend an hour, flicking through magazines while the old man was in the meeting. Terry couldn’t remember the last time he didn’t have anywhere urgent he needed to be or someone he felt like he was neglecting. The girl on reception kept smiling at him, flashing glimpses of metal, and Terry smiled back.</p>
<p>When Bruce returned he was joined with a man no older than thirty who was continually shaking Bruce’s hand. “We really can’t thank you enough, Mr Wayne,” he was saying, grin almost splitting his face, “this really will make all the difference for us.” </p>
<p>“Glad I could help,” Bruce said, expertly extracting himself from the man’s grasp and stepping around him. “I expect to hear updates from you soon.”</p>
<p>“Yes, Mr Wayne, very, very soon.” The man went to take Bruce’s hand again, apparently thought better of it, then awkwardly bowed.</p>
<p>“A successful meeting, I take it?” Terry said, stepping in stride with Bruce towards the elevator. </p>
<p>“You could say that. I just completely funded their project,” Bruce could have been talking about the weather for how casual he sounded. </p>
<p>Terry whistled. “Wow, so that’s why he looked like he wanted to kiss you.”</p>
<p>“Hmm, that and my natural charm.”</p>
<p>Terry snorted. “So, we done here?”</p>
<p>“Not yet, there’s one more stop.” </p>
<p>“Another company you wanna buy?” Terry asked, as they stepped into the elevator, watching Bruce hit the button for the 27th floor.</p>
<p>“Not exactly.”</p>
<p>“Y’know your ‘tell Terry nothing’ schtick got tired about a year ago, right?”</p>
<p>“But patience remains a virtue.” Terry just rolled his eyes. There was nothing else he could do. </p>
<p>The floor they landed on looked more professional than RiftTech and had clearly been established longer given how lived in each of the desks looked on the open plan floor, but it still hardly seemed in keeping with the standard Bruce usually dealt with.</p>
<p>“A newspaper, Bruce?” Terry asked, surprised, when he recognised the large globe logo on the office wall. “When I said you should write down your memoirs I didn’t exactly mean sell your story to the press.”</p>
<p>“I have a meeting with the editor. I’m a little early,” Bruce said to the receptionist, ignoring Terry entirely.</p>
<p>“He’ll be right with you, Mr Wayne,” she said with a bright smile. Terry bit back the many questions he was itching to ask as they waited, not wanting to give Bruce the satisfaction, but he couldn’t mask his double take when he saw the man approaching them.</p>
<p>“Bruce, Terry, great to see you!” </p>
<p>“Joseph,” Bruce greeted the man Terry knew as Superman dressed in shirt, slacks and overly large spectacles that kept slipping down his nose.</p>
<p>“Hi, I mean, um, hello.” Terry stiffly took the hand that was offered to him, trying hard not to gawp.</p>
<p>“You’ll have to excuse, Terry,” Bruce said, looking unbearably smug, “I blindsided him a little, he didn’t know he’d also be part of the meeting.”</p>
<p>“Bruce always did like to keep everyone on their toes.” Superman smiled warmly down at Terry and Terry couldn’t help the way his stomach flipped. “Shall we?” he indicated back towards his office.</p>
<p>“Actually, I thought we could do this over lunch. I’ve already booked somewhere.” </p>
<p>Superman laughed, deep and genuine. “Of course you did.”</p>
<p>Bruce had booked out the private suite of a lavishly expensive restaurant the next block over, mostly so they could speak freely but Terry suspected it also had a little to do with the fact that Superman had sheepishly admitted his usual lunch was a stale sandwich from the little kiosk outside his office building.</p>
<p>“So now are you going to tell me what’s going on here?” Terry said once they were finally left alone.</p>
<p>“Some habits die hard it seems,” Superman said with a smile. “Even back in the day, Bruce liked to hold his cards very close to the chest.”</p>
<p>“Sometimes it feels like I don’t even know what game we’re playing!” Terry said because ganging up on Bruce with Superman was an opportunity too good to miss.</p>
<p>“If you’ve both finished.” Bruce was giving him a look so Terry pointedly sat back, crossing his arms. “I thought it would be good for you to get to know Joseph a little better outside of the job, Terry. I won’t be around forever but for all we know, he will.”</p>
<p>“Geeze, Bruce, way to bring down lunch.”</p>
<p>Superman chuckled. “That hasn’t changed either.”</p>
<p>“Are you really just going to spend this time complaining?”</p>
<p>“No, it’s just…. I’m having a hard time getting my head around this.”</p>
<p>“‘Superman and two Batmen walk into a restaurant’, it does sound like the beginning of a bad joke,” Superman agreed with a laugh.</p>
<p>“It’s not just that, but also <em>yeah</em>.” There really wasn’t much use in playing it cool at this point and Bruce’s satisfied smile wasn’t really that annoying. “Just… you being just a guy who works at a <em>newspaper</em>? What, was the video rental industry too popular for you?”</p>
<p>Superman chuckled. “I know, I know. We’re just about the last remaining newspaper that actually does physical prints anymore. But what can I say, I’m old fashioned and the world still needs to be informed by a source people can count on to always tell them the truth.”</p>
<p>“So ‘Joseph’ is like your secret identity, huh?” Superman glanced at Bruce with a slight frown.</p>
<p>“You really haven’t told him anything, have you.” It was Terry’s turn to look at Bruce with a smug smile. Bruce barely even reacted.</p>
<p>“I thought it might be best coming from you. Some secrets aren’t mine to tell.”</p>
<p>“Right,” Superman said, a slight smile indicating he knew Bruce well enough to not buy what he was selling. “To answer your question, Terry, yes, Joseph Kent is my name outside of Superman, but when Bruce and I worked together I went by Clark. When my lack of ageing was becoming suspicious, my wife and I moved out of Metropolis to enjoy her retirement. When she passed, I travelled for a while but couldn’t stay away from my city for too long. I returned as Joseph, distant cousin to Clark, who just happened to also like journalism. No one I’d known before was still around to notice or care.”</p>
<p>“Wow,” Terry murmured, almost to himself. “That must have been tough.”</p>
<p>“It was, but I’ve met new people and made new friends. Not to replace the old but to add to them. The curse of a long life is that you lose more people, but the gift is you get to meet so many more as well.” </p>
<p>Sitting at that table was like seeing two paths stretching out before Terry, the result of two different choices when faced with mortality; embracing it and resenting it. Superman was almost sickeningly well adjusted, while Bruce, well, Bruce had gone into old age kicking and screaming. Terry hoped he got the chance to figure out which route he'd take.</p>
<p>“So you must have some great stories to tell, huh?” he said with a grin.</p>
<p>Superman leaned back in his chair, the smile on his lips kind and the look in his eye far, far away. “Oh, I have stories, alright.” </p>
<p>-</p>
<p>“So lunch was… something,” Terry said on the ride back to the airport. Bruce hummed, noncommittal but still extremely smug.</p>
<p>“You never told me a fraction of what you got up to with the Justice League. If you want me in space fighting aliens every Thursday I might need an increase in my allowance.”</p>
<p>Bruce chuckled. He seemed at ease, as though revelling in the past had relaxed him better than any spar ever could. “There’s a line between telling you information that’ll help you and just plain showing off.”</p>
<p>“Please, and I mean <em>please</em>, don’t ever let that stop you.” Bruce just smiled one of his elusive smiles and said nothing.</p>
<p>“You have to know this doesn’t let you off the hook thought, right?” Bruce never participated in a loaded question. He just let it hang between them until Terry went and answered it himself. “Hearing Sup-<em>Joseph’s</em> stories, it was amazing, but he’s not the man I’m really interested in.” He glanced away from the road to study Bruce’s impressive profile. He should get a bust of it commissioned so when the old guy was gone Bruce could still not look at him in stony judgemental silence as Terry spoke to it.</p>
<p>“I almost gave up being Batman, in the early days.” Bruce offered the statement into the silence like it was nothing when really it was <em>everything</em>. </p>
<p>Terry’s heart was hammering in his chest but he kept his voice casual. “Oh yeah? Heard another calling?”</p>
<p>“You could say that.” There was a beat in which Terry genuinely thought Bruce might just leave it at that. “There was a woman.”</p>
<p>“Ah.” Even from what little Terry knew it was obvious there had been a lot of women.</p>
<p>“It’s a long story and I know what your young attention span is like.”</p>
<p>“It’s a way to go before we get to Gotham,” Terry said, shifting gears and pulling out seamlessly from the fast lane, “And I’m all ears.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Terry and Bruce remain my favourite comics dynamic. I'm on <a href="https://twitter.com/battmiIk">twitter</a></p></blockquote></div></div>
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